Shoal Point Drilling HistoryIntroduction and Recent Exploration History
Light, sweet crude oil was discovered in 1995 on the western Port au Port Peninsula in the PCP/Hunt Port au Port #1 well, which flowed 51-degree API oil at instantaneous rates over 2400 BPD. The project was eventually taken over by Canadian Imperial Venture Corp. (CIVC) which re-tested the well in 2001. Over 24,000 barrels of oil have been produced from the well, but due to extensive formation damage within the borehole it has not been put into production. The Port au Port #1-Sidetrack 2 well recently produced at approximately 300 BOPD and 1 MMCFD before being shut in for mechanical reasons. The entire regional west Newfoundland play has been estimated by government and industry sources to have the potential to yield in the range of 2 to 4 billion barrels of light oil.
The Shoal Point K-39 well, 35 km northeast of the Port au Port #1 discovery, was drilled in 1999 from a surface location onshore Shoal Point and deviated to test a large offshore structure. Because of sparse 2-D seismic coverage in the shallow water immediately offshore, there was some uncertainty as to the exact shape of the fault-bound structural trap prior to drilling. Recent auditing, reprocessing and reinterpretation of seismic data in the area leads to the conclusion that the K-39 well did not test the prospective structure.
Geology
The oil is contained in highly karsted and dolomitized platform carbonates of the Middle Ordovician St. George Group, which is the northern Appalachian equivalent of a highly productive trend extending from the Ellenburger in Texas to the very active Trenton-Black River play currently being exploited in New York State and the St. Lawrence Lowlands.
A strong regional trend of reservoir and trap development occurs in the footwall of a major fault system known as the Round Head Thrust, which trends along the western Port au Port Peninsula and swings northeastward at Port au Port Bay to form a complex extensional structure offshore. This footwall trend is an important predictor of reservoir and trap development because, prior to Appalachian deformation, it formed the high shoulders of rotated, down-to-the-east extensional fault blocks that were the loci of the early and critical karsting (cave development) and shallow dolomitization; this process formed conduits for later porosity enhancement by hydrothermal fluids. The footwall trend can be mapped continuously on seismic from the Port au Port #1 discovery northward to Garden Hill North and offshore to where it forms a high target at the Shoal Point structure.